Posts categorized "Remembrance"

March 14, 2010

The wreck of HMS E18 was discovered last year on the bed of the Baltic Sea off the coast of Estonia.

She was one of a handful of vessels sent to the Baltic during the First World War by Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, to disrupt German shipments of iron ore from Sweden and support the Russian navy.

E18 left her base in the Russian port of Reval - now Tallinn, the capital of Estonia - on the evening of May 25, 1916, and headed west.

The following day she was reported to have torpedoed a German ship.

But a few days later, possibly on June 2, she is believed to have struck a German mine and sunk.

February 25, 2010

MINSK – President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has congratulated President of the Republic of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves and people of Estonia upon the national holiday – Independence Day, BelTA learnt from the presidential press service.

Alexander Lukashenko expressed his confidence that Belarus and Estonia have a big potential for the successful expansion of all-round cooperation. “I hope that in the near term the relations between our countries, which are based on respect and mutual understanding, will get a new impetus for development to the benefit of Belarusian and Estonian peoples,” said the President of Belarus.

On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I congratulate the people of Estonia as they celebrate 92 years since the founding of their republic on February 24. Estonians can be proud that despite fifty years of occupation, the democratic flame lit in 1918 was never extinguished. It lived on in the hearts and minds of brave Estonian men and women who never gave up on their country or its future.

Today, the United States and Estonia enjoy a broad and dynamic partnership. We are working together to bring peace and stability to troubled parts of the world, to promote wider prosperity, and to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of the 21st century. As a valued NATO ally, Estonia has been a strong partner in the international mission in Afghanistan. Our troops serve side by side in the fight against violent extremism and to support the Afghan people’s aspirations for a more peaceful future.

We honor their service and sacrifice. On this National Day, let me offer my warmest wishes and reaffirm the commitment of the United States to working together to further deepen and strengthen our partnership.

February 24, 2010

I am aware there are a lot of people interested in reading what I have to say about this, that and the other, but surely a big patriotic event like Independence Day is best covered by native writers?

But then I realized, everything that can be written about Estonian Independence Day and the new national awakening Estonia currently is going through has already been exhaustively covered.

I can imagine the words.

“Estonians fought to preserve the nation’s freedom, Estonians must still fight to preserve the nation’s freedom.”

What else is there left to say?

Well, actually looking at it from as an outsider there is quite a lot to say. I can say this with authority. Patriots from other countries envy Estonia. This is an exciting time to be alive and be Estonian.

To us outsiders what is going on in Estonia is an heroic human endeavor, it’s nation building, it’s “a brave new world” in the sense Shakespeare originally meant it.

Let’s see how they do things in other countries. I’ll use my country, because I know it.

Britain doesn’t have a national day. We have the Queen’s birthday but nobody knows when it is, and nobody cares.

Never in the course of centuries have the Estonian people lost their ardent desire for Independence. From generation to generation Estonians have kept alive the secret hope that in spite of enslavement and oppression by other nations the time will come in Estonia "when all splinters, at both end, will burst forth into flames" and when "Kalev will come home to bring his children happiness."

Now this time has arrived.

An unprecedented struggle of nations has destroyed the rotten foundations of the Russian Tsarist Empire. All over the Sarmatian plains ruinous anarchy is spreading, threatening to overwhelm in its wake all peoples living within the borders of the former Russian Empire. From the West the victorious armies of Germany are approaching in order to claim their share of Russia's legacy and, above all, to take possession of the coastal territories of the Baltic Sea.

In this fateful hour the Estonian National Council, as the legal representative of our land and people, has, in unanimous agreement with Estonian democratic political parties and organizations, and by virtue of the right of self-determination of peoples, found it necessary to take the following decisive steps to shape the destiny of Estonian land and people.

ESTONIA,

within her historical and ethnic boundaries, is declared as of today an

INDEPENDENT DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC.

The independent Republic of Estonia shall include Harjumaa, Läänemaa, Järvamaa, Virumaa, with the city of Narva and its surroundings, Tartumaa, Võrumaa, Viljandimaa, and Pärnumaa with the Baltic islands of Saaremaa, Hiiumaa, Muhumaa, and others where the Estonians have settled for ages in large majorities. Final determination of the boundaries of the Republic in the areas bordering on Latvia and Russia will be carried out by plebiscite after the conclusion of the present World War.

Estonia is a democratic parliamentary republic and is divided into 15 counties. The capital and largest city is Tallinn. With a population of only 1.34 million, Estonia is one of the least-populous members of the European Union. Estonia was a member of the League of Nations from September 22, 1921, has been a member of the United Nations since September 17, 1991, of the European Union since May 1, 2004, and of North Atlantic Treaty Organization since March 29, 2004. Estonia has also signed the Kyoto protocol.

Food, construction, and electronic industries are currently among the most important sectors of Estonia’s industry. In 2007, the construction industry employed more than 80,000 people which make around 12 percent of the entire country’s workforce. Another important industrial sector is the machinery and chemical industry which is mainly located in Ida-Viru County and around Tallinn. The oil shale-based mining industry, which is also concentrated in East Estonia, produces around 90 percent of the entire country’s electricity.

Estonia joined the World Trade Organization on November 13, 1999. With assistance from the European Union, the World Bank, and the Nordic Investment Bank, Estonia completed most of its preparations for European Union membership by the end of 2002 and now has one of the strongest economies of the new member states of the European Union. The Estonian economy has often been described as the Baltic Tiger.

We congratulate the people and government of Estonia led by their Excellencies, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, and its Consulate head in the Philippines, Dr. Juan N. Pena, on the occasion of their National Day. We wish them success in all their endeavors.

Few well-wishers in his Farmington Avenue apartment that day knew what he had endured.

But the story of his childhood as a subject of czarist Russia, his life during the rise of Hitler, the Nazi invasion of Estonia, his escape to arctic Siberia and life under Stalin won't pass when he does.

It is told in the 86 pages of "The Memoirs of Lazar Kalmanson," which he wrote in longhand from 1999 through 2003 for his daughter and two grandchildren. It was typed and edited by volunteer Audrey Troy, who was looking for something to do to help someone.

"He has an amazing story," Troy, now 65, said Tuesday. She'd traveled from her upstate New York home and was so eager to see him again that she ran up three flights of stairs because the elevator to Kalmanson's floor was too slow.

"When we worked together, I found out he lived through so much. And I never saw him bitter about anything. He's such a wonderful man."

Troy joined Kalmanson's only child, Rachel Nazarov, two rabbis and the cantor from nearby Congregation Beth Israel, friends and caregivers to celebrate his birthday.

"My father, knock on wood, is so lucky," said Nazarov, a New Hartford resident whose son Ari is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., and whose daughter Rina is a chemical engineer in Boston. "I am, too. He's always been my moral support. We talk about anything, even now. I hide nothing from him."

On Tuesday, February 23, wreaths will be laid on the gravesites of Estonian state figures in Metsakalmistu and state decorations will be handed out by the President of the Republic in the Bank of Estonia.

On the morning of February 24, a formal flag-raising ceremony will take place in Tallinn, where a speech will be given by Speaker of the Riigikogu Ene Ergma.

Wreaths will be placed at the base of the Monument to the War of Independence, a church service will take place in the Dome Church, and the Defence Forces parade will be held on Vabaduse Square. On the same day, a celebratory concert and the formal reception of the President of the Republic and Mrs Evelin Ilves will take place in the evening in the Vanemuine Concert Hall in Tartu.

The formal events will be attended by the President of the Republic, the speaker of the Riigikogu, the prime minister, members of the government and Riigikogu, and representatives of the diplomatic corps.

The anniversary is celebrated widely everywhere in Estonia. In Tallinn, wreaths by government, the Defence Forces and Defence League will be laid at the Freedom Monument. Tallinn city government members attend a ceremony at the grave of Jaan Poska, the head of the Estonian delegation at the peace talks 90 years ago, at the City Cemetery.

In Tartu, there will be a number of events, exhibitions, openings, and ceremonies that will be attended by president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, government and Riigikogu members. Among other things, a Tartu Peace Treaty room will be opened which exhibits the original of the Tartu Peace Treaty and a monument to Jaan Poska will also be opened. The party culminates with a concert at the Vanemuine concert hall and reception organised by the Defence Forces Joint training Facilities.

On February 2, 1920, representatives of the Government of the Republic of Estonia and those of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic’s council of People’s Commissars concluded a treaty in Tartu in which Russia recognised Estonia’s independence and statehood. The treaty also ended the War of Freedom that had lasted for 431 days and claimed over 5,000 lives from Estonia and her allies.

This is a memorial service, usually performed on Friday evenings, on the eve of Ancestors’ Saturdays, or on days that the whole Church commemorates the reposed in general. On the morning of 5 December, Patriarch Kirill will return to the same church to celebrate the liturgy, then, he will serve a Pannikhida at the grave of Patriarch Aleksei in the right side of the cathedral.

On this day, all Orthodox churches and monasteries will serve memorial liturgies for the repose of the soul of the late Patriarch Aleksei. Many parishes will hold commemorative events and exhibitions devoted to the departed patriarch.

The clergy and the faithful will remember Patriarch Aleksei, the First Hierarch of the Moscow Patriarchate during the most recent period in Russian history, a time that saw the revival of church life in the Motherland.

Today, the Museum of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour opened a new exhibition about the life and ministry of the reposed First Hierarch. It will present his personal belongings, and, on Saturday, viewers of TV Pervy Kanal (First Channel) will see the documentary Путь патриарха (Put Patriarkha: The Path of the Patriarch), dedicated to the memory of Patriarch Aleksei. In the film, figures such as Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović of Montenegro and Primorsky, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and Patriarch Aleksei’s assistant, Nikolai Derzhavin, and TV presenter Aleksei Svetozarsky, who did holiday broadcasts from the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, shall give their recollections of the late First Hierarch.

December 01, 2009

OTTAWA – The House of Commons has declared Aug. 23 as Black Ribbon Day to commemorate victims of totalitarian Nazi and Soviet Communist regimes.

MPs gave unanimous consent Monday to a motion proposed by Liberal Bob Rae, which would formalize a day of remembrance which has already been adopted by some ethnic groups.

The day chosen is the anniversary of the notorious Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939.

That was the agreement in which Adolf Hitler's Nazis and Josef Stalin's Soviet Communists divvied up Poland and much of eastern Europe.

Rae's motion spoke of Canadians "superficial and inadequate" knowledge of the evils of the Nazi and Communist regimes.

Last summer, after a commemorative march in Toronto, the Central and Eastern European Council of Canada urged Parliament to formalize Black Ribbon Day.

"The people and government of Canada unequivocally condemn the crimes against humanity committed by totalitarian Nazi and Communist regimes and offer the victims of these crimes and their family members sympathy, understanding and recognition for their suffering," Rae said in his resolution.

November 30, 2009

"I send my heartfelt condolences to you and the entire Russian nation commemorating those who perished tragically in the accident involving the Moscow-St. Petersburg train on November 27th," President Toomas Hendrik Ilves wrote in his letter of condolence to Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian Head of State. "My thoughts are with the families of the victims and I wish all those who were injured a speedy recovery."

On this day, the Supreme Council of Estonian SSR declared on an extraordinary session Estonia’s laws having supremacy over the laws of the Soviet Union.

The session of the Supreme Council lasted for 10 hours and 258 MPs voted in favour of the declaration.

Among other things, the declaration stated that due to the Stalinist regimes and the internal policies of the period of stagnation, the demographic situation has become unfavourable for Estonians in Estonia. The environmental situation was catastrophic and the destabilisation of the economy had an adverse impact on the population’s standard of living.

The decision adopted 21 years ago has also been called a test of honesty and openness for the former Supreme Council.

November 07, 2009

When Estonia sank in 1994 on its way from Stockholm to Tallinn; 852 of the 989 people onboard drowned. 551 of them were Swedish.

The bow door on the ship is believed to have failed leading to enormous amount of water on car deck. There have however been a large number of conspiracy theories about weapons, drugs and other forbidden cargo on Estonia and that she was brought down deliberately by someone. None of these theories have however been taken seriously by the authorities.

It is Meyer, the German constructors of the ship and French Veritas, who classified the ship as accaptable for traffic, that are prosecuted in Paris. Behind the trial are survivors and relatives to the victims

France has not sign the international treaty saying that Estonia is a mass grave and should be protected and untouched. The court can thereby demand a new examination of the ship.

It has taken many years for the Paris court to take up the case since they had to wait for other similar cases to be completed.

October 02, 2009

“I hope that we will open a monument to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II on the day when the building of the Church of the Quick to Hear Icon of the Mother of God will be completed here at the square,” the city Mayor Edgar Savisaar told participants in the ceremony.

He called Patriarch Alexy “a great man,” and noted, “Estonian people mourned over his decease with the entire Orthodox world.”

The square financed by the mayor office is located in front of the Orthodox Church of the Quick to Hear Icon of the Mother of God, which is being constructed on donations in residential area Lasnamae.

Tallinn-born Alexy II laid a foundation stone of the church during his visit to Estonia in September 2003.

September 29, 2009

Tuomo Karppinen of Finland’s Accident Investigation Board was in his bathroom shaving on the morning of September 28th, 1994 when he first heard about the sinking of the Estonian car and passenger ferry Estonia off the Finnish coast while en route from Tallinn to Stockholm. Karppinen’s daughter came to the door and said: “A ship has sunk in the Archipelago Sea, and 800 people have drowned”. “‘A ship can’t sink like that, certainly not in the Archipelago Sea’, I thought.” “I went to work and immediately began making calculations of whether or not the load carried on a ship like the Estonia can cause a ship to tip it over in such a way that it would sink like that.”

A shipbuilding engineer by profession, Karppinen happened to work at the ship laboratory of the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) at the time. “One of the first guesses at the time was that of a sinking caused by a shift of the load. I thought on my own, that the load cannot shift so much that it would cause a ship to sink”, Karppinen recalls. “I noted that listing caused by a shifting load would be no more than ten degrees, and that it could not be as much as 30 degrees. A ten-degree list would not sink a ship. Something else must have happened.” Karppinen concluded that the only possibility was that the ship must have taken on water.

The disaster, which claimed the lives of 823 people early yesterday, plunged Sweden and Estonia into national mourning. Rescue efforts continued all day, but were suspended last night with 141 people found, 42 bodies recovered, and the remainder of the 964 aboard missing presumed dead.

As with the 1987 ferry tragedy off Zeebrugge, which claimed 193 lives, the issue that mattered last night for hundreds of grieving relatives was why the disaster had occurred.

The investigation by Finland, Sweden and Estonia, was expected to focus on the Swedish safety inspectors' discovery, only hours before the ferry sailed from Tallinn en route to Stockholm, of defective seals on a door to the vessel's car deck.

But the Swedish inspectors, who spent five hours on board the doomed ferry, said last night that they had found only minor faults, none big enough to have caused the disaster.

The ferry capsized and sank in high seas several minutes after developing a 30-degree list 23 nautical miles off the Finnish island of Uto.

This event 20 years ago was a milestone in the struggle of the three states towards the elimination of the legal and political effects of their occupation and annexation by the Soviet Union in 1940.

The Aeroclub of Lithuania - the biggest general aviation organization in Lithuania is organizing and coordinating the memory flight along the route of Baltic road together with pilots of three Baltic countries.

The group leaded by historical An 2 from Lithuanian army and followed by 15 private airplanes will try to recall the Baltic road on the August 23, 2009. The group will fly in one chain, in the height of 300 meters above the ground.

During the first part of flight the group will fly from Panevėžys – EYPI airfield - to Riga city boundary, later overfly the city a little bit north of TV tower. The approximate time above Riga city is 11.45 local time. After the Riga the formation of planes will fly to Tallinn CTR point SAKU along the E 67 motorway, later will overfly the city to MUUGA point at Tallinn CTR and overfly city to the south to VAIDA point at Tallinn CTR. After Tallinn the group will land at Rapla – EERA aerodrome. The approximate time above Tallinn is 13.10 local time. In Rapla the formation will be greeted by Estonian pilots and media.

In the route back the group will fly from Rapla – EERA - to Kyviskes airfield – EYVK - all along the E67 motorway. The formation will enter Vilnius CTR at Avizieniai fly to the Cathedral square and leave Vilnius CTR at Liepynai point. The AN 2 will drop flowers above Cathedral square. Approximate time above Cathedral square is 19.00 LT.

The pilots from three Baltic countries will join our group and will form the unforgivable formation of airplanes.

The symbolic 24-hour relay from Vilnius and Tallinn to Riga will once again manifest the unity of the Baltic nations, the presidents point out.

The start signal for the run will be given by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite in Lithuania and Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves in Estonia, whereas Latvian President Valdis Zatlers will receive the participants of the relay race in Riga, where the run will finish at the Freedom Monument.

Zatlers underlines that 20 years ago, the people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined their hands in the Baltic Way, and the power of unity of the three nations is remembered in the world as unique evidence of the Baltic singing revolution.

As reported, marking the 20th Anniversary of the Baltic Way, the Baltic unity run "Sirdspuksti Baltijai" (Heartbeat For Baltics) will take place on August 22-23.

The twenty-four-hour run will start in Tallinn and Vilnius, and the finish of the run will take place at the Freedom Monument in Riga at 8 p.m. on August 23.

The 671-kilometre distance will be divided in one-kilometer long relay run, and every inhabitant of the Baltic States will be called to join the leading relay runners in their chosen kilometer.

The Baltic unity run will be held to revive the unity between the Baltic nations and to remind about the joint fight for freedom and aspirations to prove the vitality of the national consciousness.